Yesterday, James went on a homecoming tour to Saltburn-by-the-Sea near
Middlesbrough and performed in his local pub and Middlesbrough Town Hall, as
well as revisiting his old bedsit and haunts on the pier.

And he cannot believe how much has changed in six months. James told TV Biz:
“Back then I was suffering severe depression. I had just given up on a lot
of things, I gave up on myself.”

James’s blues became so bad doctors gave him medication but he didn’t like the
way it made him feel. Instead, friends and family rallied round — and ended
up coercing him into auditioning for The X Factor.

He said: “I need to find someone like Nicole really, but there aren’t many
around.”

When James has found his Nicole, he wants to give his own children the family
life he never had. It’s no secret James had a difficult childhood and he has
previously revealed he ended up sleeping rough and couch-surfing as a
teenager.

But now he would not change his upbringing for the world — in fact, it has
inspired him. He said: “I may not have been able to convey emotions in the
way I do now if it hadn’t been for those bad experiences.”